SARDAR SAROVAR PROJECT AFFECTED EXPOSE THE NEXUS BEHIND FAKE REGISTRIES AND
MISAPPROPRIATION IN R&R SITE WORKS

Justice (Retd.) Shravan Shankar Jha's two day visit on the 4th and 5th of June
to the Sardar Sarovar affected areas in Badwani and Dhar districts brought out
the massive scale of corruption which has seeped into each of the
rehabilitation related work and infested the same. Justice Jha Commission
appointed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh by its order dated 21-08-2008 in
the case of Narmada Bachao Andolan versus Government of Madhya Pradesh, Narmada
Valley Development Authority, Narmada Control Authority and others has now
taken up the work of in-depth inquiry in a full-fledged manner receiving
complaints and now paying field visits.

The Commission visited 5 rehabilitation sites in Badwani and 2 in Kukshi tehsil
of Dhar district, wherein the horrifying conditions of civic amenities startled
everyone, including the officials accompanying the Commission. In each of the
'Vasahats', there was water shortage to such an extent that even the touring
team couldn't get its bottles filled!

Most of the hand pumps were dysfunctional and water tanks were erected but not
connected, showing wastage of funds. It was due to the fear of seepage and bad
works that connections were tried but not started, many oustees reported. In
Amlali, people proved that there was a well-looking tap set up on the ground
with no water pipe below! At the Jamda vasahat for village Pichhodi, there were
some landless families found staying and working in the rooms built for either
a school or a dispensary which shook and shocked the Commission!

The only seemingly better site was of Nisarpur, where about 150 houses are
built and 25 families shifted, while 25,000 families continue to stay in the
original village, which is like a township, with dharamsala, schools, large
wells, wedding halls, temples, mosques to a big market and everything in the
original village is not even planned nor ready to be shifted while all while
all the families have not even been allotted house plots! Many dalit women came
to meet Justice Jha and narrated the fact of they being excluded due to no
other reason but corruption which they can't afford to practice.

Fake registries unearthed: An open nexus of touts and officials:

Agents of whom? A number of poor persons, Shafibhai and Krishna of Chikalda,
Laxman Chamar and Shankar Sharma of Khaparkheda, Bhagabhai and Ranvirbhai of
Semalda in Kukshi and Manawar Tehsils raised this question and answered
themselves by deposing before the Commission during an open public hearing held
at a packed Panchayat Bhavan and again at the Official Rest House in Manawar.
They described with vividness how they were approached by the agents or
directed to them by the officials whose agents they were.

The late night parties and almost offices opened, and the residence of
officials too were the spots of conspiracy. No work could be done without
paying bribe and hence those who are eligible have been left out, while the
ineligible families have been brought onto the record. Registrar's office,
Patwari and revenue officials, police and bank officials are part of the nexus,
but the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Officers of NVDA and the higher ups
were specifically named for their leading role by small and marginalized
farmers like Navalbhai or a widow like Shannobhabhi.

"No complete rehabilitation' is the result of no land, illegal payment of cash
in lieu of land, (as a package) and the white ant of corruption eating away the
state exchequer and hence resettlement itself ", people asserted.

Justice Jha Commission would also receive complaints and applications related
to fake land registries which is betrayal of PAPs till June 16th and after
further technical and crime-investigation, through the special investigation
team of revenue, Police and PWD officials associated with it, submit its Report
to the High Court of Madhya Pradesh by September 2009.

Apart from no finalization of back water levels, no land available for
allotment, to incomplete resettlement sites, it may be noted that there are not
less than 40,000 families i.e 2 lakh people residing in the 'to be affected'
villages in Madhya Pradesh and the already affected adivasi communities in the
mountain ranges. Serious violation of law has result in no further permission
being granted to the raising of the dam height with 17 mts high gates, beyond
122 mts (the present height) to its full height (i.e 138.68 mts)